Thursday, 20 December 2012

Last day at work before my 3 week holiday! Hooary!!!! Been crazy in my household trying to sort out all the Christmas presents, clear all my bills, empty all the food in the cupboards and get everything in order before I dash off for HOLIDAY!!!! Finally. Just need to pack my suitcase this weekend!

In case you have not received my Christmas card ( coz I only sent them out last week..even for overseas..oops ) here is one. You must be the lucky one if you have it by now :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New year everyone! Many big plans for myself in 2013. Bring it on!:D Stay Cozy if you are in Scotland but for me, it is flip flop time!

Wednesday, 31 October 2012

I love my kraft card base and they feature in my projects quite a lot if you have not realised. I love making one layer card with my kraft card base, not sure why but I always think kraft and one layer card is a perfect match? It is time to mass produce some Christmas cards as well, don’t you think?

I am definitely more organised this year because I remember I only start last year when I am watching ‘im a celebrity get me out of here!’( Yup, I was watching bug eating at the same time as making nice Christmas cards. )

Is time to have a cuppa , how cold Scotland can be? I think I am going to buy a few more onessie :)

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Did you think of the lady gaga song when you seen my title and even have the song in your head now? i did!haha:D

Anyway, just a quick card then I am heading to my beloved bed. I am totally stressed out at work these days and I am feeling I am on the edge from 9-5. 9 weeks till Christmas I am telling myself. (3 days till weekend..) and maybe starting to do Christmas shopping soon will make me feel better?!!

Friday, 5 October 2012

TGIF and my long weekend holiday finally arrived!!! been missing in blogland for a few weeks coz I m kinda busy, excuses I know. the truth is I just love my bed too much and I start to hibernate(!!) since it is totally winter in Scotland. -1 C in October, really?

OK, the real reason is I started to take up some new responsibilities at work that totally stress tired me out and I did an intensive Photoshop course in September (to ‘try to’ improve my photography and design skills, CS6, I can’t wait to get you on my laptpp!) and I am still taking orders for personalized albums. I am a woman that can’t multitask and I just can’t find time to blog.

I am still trying to do craft for an hour or so every so often, I just dont have time to tidy all the photos and blog them.( and my room is covered in craft supplies that are still in the boxes. No more craft shopping until Christmas seriously. Maybe just one more, have you checked out the new clearly besotted stamps yet?their flowery stamp set just echo my current flower cutting addiction.)

Going to share some baby cards in this post. How adorable are these PTI images.

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Got a new PTI set from ebay, loving the star images and I can’t keep my hands away from it.

Made a set of 5 congratulations cards and going to enter the set for this week A passion for PTI challenge. ( Congratulations to Team GB, and how nice is Jess Ennis! Wish there is less TOWIE people and more proper true inspirational people on TV!)

At the moment, I am exploring some new techniques in doing up my blog and photos. As I am not a computer guru so it might take me some time to do it. Please bear with me if you see the interface of my blog it is in a total mess(!!)

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

This week CAS-ual Friday topic is something in the sky, so what objects should I go for? First, I thought of a bird..then butterfly, but I want to make a more boyish card this week, so I am going for rockets!! And I can use all the left over scrap paper from the baby album. One stone, 2 birds:D found a perfect quote for this little card as well.

All my recent cards are all kinda Olympics inspired, wonder what I am going to make next week when it is all over? and rumours that the Spice girls will be in the closing ceremony?! Totally brings back childhood memory(!!)

Sunday, 22 July 2012

I can’t believe I am back from Florida for more than 4 weeks now, and I think now it's time for me to come back to ‘normal’ life and start to blog again. ( My routine for the first week back is work>bed> back to work, I even left my suitcase unpacked for the whole week(!!)I did my washing the 1st day then the suitcase got left in the living room for. the. whole. week .terrible I know. Felt like a zombie when I was dealing with all the paperwork sitting on my office desk when I was back at work. Proper zombie. Not joking) But, Sun is shining today after 3 weeks of rain so I think today is a good day for a new post!

Just a wee mention on my holiday in case you are interested…Florida is so much fun and HOT, unbearably hot, burnt to a crisp 1st time in my life. Wish I got more money and luggage allowance so I can bring home more craft goodies and cheap stuff from the outlet! I managed to bring back 6 12x12 photo album this time(!!) Should put another 4 in Gary’s luggage if I had known his luggage was not overweight!

So I will show you what I am working on these days, another baby album, baby boy this time(much more challenging than baby girl i think !) , and some baby cards I quickly put together the other day(not sure why i made a baby girl card instead of a baby boy tho..). There is so much cute craft stuff for baby/baby shower in America so I guess I will be working on baby theme for a while from now on. Entering this card for A Passion for PTI , a while since last time I enter any challenge.

A sneak peek of the album..

Will try to go back to the effective mode rather than the holiday mode(= lazy mode) which I was in for the whole month! Still got a holiday album to make. Will add that to my never ending to do list.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Manic in my household this week. 3 days before my travel buddies arrive in Scotland and 2 weeks till the Florida trip!! So I am doing my very last minute preparations, that includes washing endless bed sheets and pillow cases, stocking up all my cupboards with food and junk(!!), cleaning the whole flat in & out, printing out all the pre-booking stuff and planning all the routes, getting all the holiday clothes ready etc…..

And I still managed to make a card to enter the challenge for A passion for PTI and CAS-ual Friday! ( My first ever entry!) one stone ,two birds.

Better head off to hang up all my washings before the sun is away!

Oh, did I mention it is finally sunny and summery in Scotland?! Hurray!

Friday, 4 May 2012

I ordered my first ever Smash book online last week and it finally arrived. Check this video to see what a Smash book is.

I choose Retro blue for my Smash book. (totally me!) I love it the minute I saw it. It will be the perfect home of my trash !( i.e. Cinema tickets, cute leaflets, bits & bobs I collect from nowhere) and random thoughts.

It came with a two sided pen. I would say the quality of the pen is much better than I thought. The tip of the pen is so fine and smooth and so is the glue. You can tell it is not a cheap glue.

Pages inside:

I don’t have a plan with my smash book, I just dodle a lot on it. Drew my 1st ever mandala the other day. (I can’t stop after one which I found it quite therapeutic in some way, search in youtube and learn how to draw one yourself)

I would recommend you to get a Smash book if you are the kind of person that love to write down a though or two every so often.

Of course you can just get an ordinary note book but the Smash book layout is much more fun and it is cool to carry around! Im going to carry it with me for all the upcoming trips.

To be honest, I think summer already came and gone, and Scotland is now officially back to winter with rain and cold weather and I won’t be surprise if it snows. ( so I am entering this card for the A passion for PTI ‘whatever the weather’ challenge, I think I might be the only one that made a ‘winter’ card when everyone else will be making summery theme !! you can’t blame me when I still need to turn my heater on at night..)

Dig out this old stamp set the other day and I thought I will give it a go. So I tried to multi task again when I am watching the Apprentice. I think this start to become a habit.

I made 3 identical cards during the show (plus one that I messed up, multitasking is not that easy in the end.. ) . Um..What to make next week ?Oh.. btw I think Tom is going to win this series.

Just quickly show you what I am currently working on at the moment as well, it is a baby girl 12x12 album for one of my colleagues. Trying to finish at least 2 pages every night, but I hope the baby will be overdue so I have more time(!!). 8 pages done. Another 12 pages (!!) to do.

Is time to put the ‘ Do not disturb’ sign on the door. Catch ya later. Cheerio :)

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

I thought I will update you on the situation of my room’s makeover. After some DIY work by Mr. Finnegan, my room is finally organized with a set of new chest of drawers. I will not show you a 'before' and 'after' photo because it is still quite messy(!!), ok, I admit I have not tidied every single part of my room yet ( You can’t rush things when you are on holiday). And to be honest, although my room is not small in size but with the amount of stuff I have, I always managed to made my room ‘crowded’ ( hint* I want a separate craft room when I move into a house!!).

Anyway, at least most of the tools and paper have now got their own place in the room rather than lying around in boxes and in plastic bags. And it is much easier for me to pull them out and work on different projects. Stage 1 completed with stage 2,3.4 to come in the coming weeks.(!!)So on a lovely Sunday afternoon while Mr. Finnegan is working on something on my laptop, I decided to make a quick card before I start sobbing that the weekend is over.

At the moment I am a bit obsessed with postmark/travel/queen jubilee/British theme so I put all these things together made this random thank you card. (And I discovered that the union flag colours are actually the same as the air mail postmark colour!!)

.

** I wrote my blog and edited the photo during the week and actually I made another card using the same background paper I made while I was watching ‘The Apprentice’( Edinburgh this week, can’t wait :D) . I just switched the design a wee bit and added the baker twine. Done before Lord sugar fired one of his candidates :D

That’s me just now, hopefully I will be able to produce a bit more in my new craft space. Lets see :D

Friday, 6 April 2012

When I am tidying my room this week, I am also trying to tidy all the photos in my laptop, putting them in different folders and stuff and then I came across these cards. I remember making them for my ex-ex-flatmate and my ex-flatmate for their uni graduation last year. I sent them both a card, some flowers and a bottle of bubbly for their big day. I still think finishing uni is kinda a big achievement and after that you are a proper grown up I guess. No more essays and assignments for the rest of your life! ( my first thought!!)

And I think uni is so much fun that I would love to do it again. If I am academicly clever, I think I would like to stay in uni forever, however I am not (not even close to it). Being a student, you have got so much free time and not much to do really , a few hours in the library max if you are approaching the essay deadline, such a great stress free life compared to working life.

Although I don't see my ex-flatmates often now since both of them moved away from 'lovely' Dundee, I still wish them all the best with what they are doing now. They are both very nice girls and lovely to live with. ( and yes, I lived with flatmate from hell before as well)

( I finished typing and editing this post when I am waiting for Argos to deliver my new set of drawers, they said the delivering time is 7am -8 pm. Will the delivery man really come at 8? I am getting impatient now) Time for a cuppa and some biscuits I guess.

I am not really in a crafting mood this week because I am going to rearrange my room so I can fit in a new chest of drawers for all of my, ever expending, craft supplies. So there is quite a lot of stuff lying around just now and I think I will start doing craft again once I have finished tidying them up during Easter. (9 days Easter holiday!! Got sooooooooooo much on my to-do list :D )

I am not in crafting mood but I am in cooking/eating mood(diet plan in the bin?!),I made a few things last weeks and I am quite happy how they turned out.

First, is the ‘Union flag’ shepherd pie. It is my version of shepherd pie, using buffalo mince instead of lamb and I added chilli in it, bascially I changed half of the recipe expect for the mash on the top(!!). I saw this ‘design’ on the cover of Jamie’s magazine a while ago and I thought what a fun idea! Perfect for Queen’s diamond jubilee dinner party. Very British :D

And next up is the ‘ Dinner for the month with Mr. Finnegan’. He chosed ‘My old man supreme chicken’ for his main course. (the original recipe from Jamie Oliver as well) Basically it is a chicken breast wraped with mushroom and pastry. I am a big fan of puff pastry so I think this is great! Even Mr. Finnegan doesn’t really like mushroom. He cleared his plate much faster than me. March mission completed :)

And I made waffle on..Pancake Friday I think..? ha. It was made within Pancake Tuesday week anyway. With ice-cream and cracking chocolate sauce, yum. ( you can totally see my ice-cream is melting tho.lol)

Even typing this blog post make me hungry! I am actually on a diet right now so i don't look too chubby in my American trip in June. Better head to the gym more ofter I guess. ( Actually I am munching a carmel slide when I am typing this. lol Diet starts on Monday which I said all the time lol)

Going to put some Jason Mraz on then back to my tidying :) Happy Easter everyone!

Friday, 16 March 2012

I am entering my 2nd a passion for PTI challenge after a great start from the 1st one(I got into the top 3 passionate last time, woo hoo!!) I think this is a good way to keep me updating my blog and make some cards that are out of my comfort zone! And it is fun:)

This weeks challenge is ‘black and white with a pop colour’, I came up with a black and white idea quite quick, but the pop colour part..I needed to think hard how this was going to match with the simple layout that I was going to make..

I am not sure why when I think of black and white, I think of Paris, so I used an Eiffel tower image from stamping up and teamed it up with a sentiments set I adore so much from PTI. It is Dawn Mcvey’s signature greetings. This set of sentiments is so versatile. It fitted so well with different themes.

I embossed the tower and the sentiment to give it a bit of 3D effect (which i know you can't really see on a 2D photo :D) and I used melon pink as my pop colour (to create a romantic effect? ) then I finished it with a ‘frame’ and some washi tape.Nice and easy in half an hour. ( and another hour to try and clean up all the embossing powder on my desk..!!)

That’s me for just now, I am hoping I am going to be lucky this time and get that coffee mug image stamp coz they are just toooooooooo cute! (My to buy list for PTI is far too long now.. and seems it is not in proportion with my saving!)

Sunday, 11 March 2012

I found out on Saturday that Burns and Harris in Dundee was closing down( after 126 years!!!!)..and they were selling all the remaining stock with 70% off. I got myself some great bargains although the shops stock was almost all gone, at the same time I am sad they are closing. I can always go to Hobbycraft and other shops I guess..but I liked the homely feeling of B&H, they always cut the cardboard for me for free and they’ve got some great art stuff. I think it is a shame that so many small businesses in this difficult economic climate are not able to survive..

So I am going to use this post to support some local business and do a bit of free marketing for them..(ok, I know..i don’t really have 10 million followers and not everyone is living in Dundee..but they are all lovely shops and products that deserve some recognitions..and whenever I like a shop/restaurant in Dundee, I always tell Gary: 'I hope they won’t close down soon' because businesses in Dundee don’t seem to last long..?)

So first up, is Henry’s coffee house. It is just a lovely place in the city centre. I love my starbucks(and all the freebies I get from the starbucks card), but it is good to sometimes go to somewhere else that is less ‘commercial’. I know what to expect in starbucks but going to Henry is more exciting, you always wonder what cakes they’ve got today and what is the soup of the day. All their food is very tasty I would say( They used to serve the soup with a roll and with Lockerbie butter which is one of the best butters I have ever tasted. I think they are available in most supermarkets, the one with salt is more tasty than the one without salt.) And I believe they do live music sessions at night time in the café now. Check their website /facebook page if you would like to know more.

They did a tasting session in the place I work the other day and the owner(Henry?haha) told me they got their coffee beans from that wee little coffee/tea shop in the city centre( you will know what i mean if you live in Dundee,that old old fashion coffee/tea shop!). Local businesses supporting each other, thumbs up :)

Then they next one is Mrs.Bridge. I guess they are quite famous already and you can see them in quite a lot of food shops. I found out actually they are based in Arbroath and they do lovely gift sets when you purchase online. I ordered a few sets for Christmas and they came with a very presentable gift bag and their products are very yummy. I used to buy the garlic mayo all the time and Gary told me the chutney i got for his family as part of the Christmas hamper went down like a storm in his household. You usually got a discount code from their facebook page for 10% off and you will sometimes get free delivery on special promotions period.

Give them a try if you are living in Dundee or in the UK. I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

Actually I am bit frustrated from the weekend just past with my blog, I tried to fix my ‘reply’ button on the comment bit, but it is just not working! I think I spent around 3 hours looking for solutions in Google and even try to fixed my HTML (god knows what they are…?!) still no progress (!!). I wish I am a computer geek guru and I should of paid more attention at school when they were teaching all this weird coding thing..

The reason behind fixing the stupid button is that I just want to say thanks for everyone for their comments and encouragement since I started this blog. It is always nice get some feedback.

(and Jeff, I lied to you, I said everyone can leave a comment, actually that’s not the case until I changed my setting 2 days ago..so you can leave a comment now without having a Google account! I learn something new about my blog everyday.lol)

I will try to finish up a few cards and hopfully get another post up later this week and enter a few card chanallege if I can, I totally need to kick the lazy bug out of my body.

Saturday, 3 March 2012

The theme is 'needle and threads'. Um. Tricky. Very Tricky. I don’t have a sewing machine. (!!) I have always wanted one but I just don’t have the space in my room, so thinking cap on!

Then I suddenly remembered I have a set of patterned paper from stamping up! And it is called 'sweet stitching' from last year's cataloge..Bingo!i guess I am going to cheat a bit here and pair it up with a hand sewed flower as the focal point. So i combined some real ‘needle and threads’ and some printed 'needle and threads’in this card. You just can’t see the real needle and threads cause they are hidden in the flower ;D

I made a mother's day themed card since it is almost mother’s day. Btw, I never really celebrate mother's day in March since my mum is still living in HK and they follow the American tradition and their mother's day is in May..But Hong Kong used to be a British colony?? Not making sense here and I am always confused when I should say happy mothers day to my mum.

And I used the a PTI mat stack 4 die and fillable frames 4's sentiment and mix and match different paper and embellishments, and a hand sewed felt flower.See my pinterest if you would like to know how to make them.

I am having a lazy week this week, started making loads of cards but they are all half finish and they are just lying around (told you I am messy!!) I guess I need to get my motivation back. I am glad there is more day light now! Can't wait for summer ( i guess i started saying that back in September?)

Thursday, 16 February 2012

I will share something else with you today. Craft related but not a real card and it's not home cooking..(because I was too busy watching Downton abbey last week?!!) but it is something combining these 2 great things plus more! is Pinterest!!

What you need to do is when you see somethig you like on the website, you can 'pin' your favourite things on your ‘board’.How fun is this?

These photos just make you smile,they show you how pretty things can be.

So much fun and full of inspiration. Looking at colours and food makes me happy.. oh..and all the places I would love to go before i die. Georgeous photos.

And I thought I will show you my 'real life pintestest' as well..My receip book and my craft idea book. Old fashoined but i love them.

I made my own craft note book, it is a 99p notebook from 'The Works'! and i got the really prettyrecipe book from paperchase.

You can see i got some recipes from Tesco magazine and some old recipes are from 'i don't even remember where'. I just wrote them down in both Chinese and English. If my granchildren would like to know my secret recipes, they better learn some Chinese :D

And i draw sketches on my craft one. Got some scrapbook sketches in the book as well. I wish I could bring this notebook with me all the time but it is a bit too heavy, I might go and get another lighter one next time.

Oh, so if you want a Pinterest account, let me know so i can invite you and you don't need to get put on the waiting list.

Sunday, 12 February 2012

When you thought Christmas was not that long ago, here comes valentines’ day. So this is another occasion for cards and some handmade goodies and more CHOCOLATE!

To be honest, Scottish people receive chocolate all year round. You usually have a selection box for Christmas, then its valentine’s day, chocolate bunny for Easter, mother’s day, father’s day, birthday, Halloween, dinner party gift. Chocolate manufactures will never go bankrupt in this chocolate loving country.

I had a light bulb moment a week ago when I was reading the new Jamie’s magazine, I can combine my two favourite hobbies! So this is what I produced. A year free ‘special dinner’ for Mr. Finnegan, which includes most of his favourite dishes and some new receipts for me to try.

Here is how it works, each month, I (the chef) will set out a 3-course menu and he can pick a date, pick the dishes he wants on the menu, then I will cook it and everyone is a happy bunny after. Great money saving idea (!!) and this is much better than me getting him a rubbish present that he might not even remember next year . ( actually, in my opinion, I never pick rubbish present so that’s why I am running out of ideas now.)

Of course, you need a card to go with it.

Then here is my next project. Some sweets for everyone on valentine’s day. Oreo truffle. Combine cream cheese with oreo, cover it with dark chocolate and some cocopops toping thingy ( yea..them 'ants' like thing!!) ... Yum.

I read this line on the paper after Richard Branson’s holiday home burnt down last year, and I though this will be perfect to end this blog post.

‎''At the end of the day, what you realise is that all that matters is the people you love. Everything else is just stuff. And none of that stuff really matters.''

So the important message here is, if you don’t get what you want this year, you can always ask for it in the next valentine’s day (!!).

Sunday, 5 February 2012

I DID IT J After having this idea for more than a year now, and with people around me keep telling me that I should do this. I finally started a blog. I would love to share all my crafty bits and bobs here, some home cooking as well if I remember to take a photo before I demolish the dish, um..some baking as well after im done with my diet. As titled, this will be my wee messy corner with my favourite things.

I guess this blog will be handy for all my dearest friends as well as those who are running out of ideas for birthdays, anniversarys, Christmas and valentine’s day.etc… If you would like to replicate any project here, just let me know and I would be happy to make up a little kit up and ship it to you. And I hope you will enjoy the making process as well and remember handmade stuff is always the best gift. (as they say...)

Oh well, I will keep this blog in English since I have no idea where I put my chinese hand writing board and it is more easy for me to update. And please feel free to share this blog with your friends as well. and I would love to hear your comment so I can keep on improving, especially on my photography skills which is very basic right now. (Same as my computer skill, took me a good few week to get this blog sorted..)

Anyways, let check out my 1st published project. My first little production is a post card I made for my LTC 2012 travel buddies. ( I hope u all received this by now!) I took the inspiration from the hero art stamp set and make this little card for them so they know is not long till the holiday of the year! I know we are not going to Paris but you get what I mean. I am really looking forward to this trip and I might keep making travel themed craft till then. till the rest of our friends are sick of us talking about it I guess.

Ok, so I think that’s me for now. I am determine to keep this blog going and I am working on a project that I will reveal a little bit later. Finally I can cross out one item on my 2012 New Year resolution list. And I still got another 10 on the list to do..haha.

Will post a 'mini present' I design for valentines day in the next post which I have not even started. Good luck to me.(!!)

About Me

When I am not making a mess, I am tidying my mess.
When I am not tidying my mess, I am trying to find more room to create more mess.
I try to be little miss tidy when I am crafting and cooking, but I always end up being little miss messy.